William h



(No Model.)

W. H. CUFF.

Machine for Inserting Threaded Wire in Boots and Shoes.

Ne. 242,277. Patented May 31,1881.

Were/ N. PETERS. Halo-Lithographer. Wanhlnginfl. D. (I.

2x) @W W UNTTED STATES PATENT Orrrcet WILLIAM H. CUFF, OF SOUTH BRAINTREE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO GORDON MGKAY, TRUSTEE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 242,277, dated May 31, 1881.

Application filed April 28, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. CUFF, of South Braintree, county of Norfolk, State of Massachusetts, havein vented an Improvement in Machines for Inserting Threaded WVire in Boots and Shoes, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

This invention in machines for inserting IO threaded wire into soles of boots and shoes is an improvement on what is known in the market as the Standard screw-machine, built under protection of United States Letters Patent No. 171,610, to which reference may be had.

I 5 In that machine the cutters or knives for cutting off the wire after it has been inserted into the sole are held in blocks which are moved longitudinally toward and from each other at right angles to the edge of the sole, while the sole is held pressed in contact with the curved under sides of the said blocks. Such construction was objectionable, because the cutters very frequently marked or gouged into the sole near the screw-wire or fastening being cut off and 2 5 defaced the sole. To obviate this difficulty I devised a thin sheet-metal shield, which I interposed between the said sliding blocks or arms and cutters, and the sole in which the screw-wire was to be inserted. This shield is 0 provided with a slot for the passage through and below it from the nose of the screw, and the shield is curved in the direction of its length and shaped about the slot, to enable the cutters as they cross the said slot to cut 3 5 oif the screw close to the sole, and the shield is so curved and shaped in the direction of its width as to permit the boot or shoe to be tipped and moved freely under it. The boot or shoe will be held on a horn asusual.

4.0 Figure 1 represents in side elevation a sufficientportion of a Standard screw-machine, substantially as represented in the said patent, to illustrate my present invention. Fig. 2 is an under-side View of the cutter-holding sliding 5 blocks enlarged and separated; Fig. 3, an enlarged under-side view and section of the shield detached.

The horn A, the upper end only of which is showninFig.1,therotatingheadB,screw-wireholding rollers O, nose D, sliding blocks E F, cutters or blades to b, and frame-work G are all common to the said Standard machine.

In the Standard machine, the wire, having been screwed into the sole supported on the horn, was cut off by the horizontal movement of the blocks E F and their cutters or blades at right angles to the sole-edge, while the sole was held pressed against the curved or rounded under sides of the said blocks, shaped substantially as in the drawings.

In the old construction the face of the sole was frequently defaced. To avoid scratching or defacing the sole, and furnish a stationary surface to bear against its upper side, I devised the thin sheet-metal shield S, which, provided with a hole, t, for the passage of the wire below and from the nose D, and scored or roughened and curved and rounded, as shown in the drawings, I attached, by screws (1, to the part G of the machine. The shield thus interposed between the under side of the sliding blocks E and F and the horn A, serves as a surface against which the shoe-soleis pressed and under which it is fed, the said shield effectually preventing the cutters or blocks in their move- 7 5 ment from in anyway injuring or marrin g the sole. The serrated under surface of the shield assists in holding the shoe in place while the screw-fasteningis beinginserted. The shield is so curved in the direction of its length, and the slot t is of such width, that the ends of the cutters a b, as they cross the said slot at right angles, cut the wire very close to the surface of the sole, but the cutters are not so made or moved as to cut off afwire in a channel. The shield is curved in the direction of its width to the more readily correspond with the shape of the blocks E F, and to permit the boot or shoe to be tipped and turned at the desired times, and in the proper direction to insert 0 screws into the sole.

I do not desire to limit this my invention to securing the shield to the frame Gr by the screws (1, for it is obvious that the said shield might be applied to any part of the machine which would hold it, and permit the shield to be interposed between the sole and the movable arms or blocks.

I claima 1. In a machine for inserting a screw-wire into soles of boots and shoes, the combination, with the slidin g cutter or blade-carryin g blocks, 5 of the slotted shield interposed between the said blocks and the sole of the boot or shoe to prevent niarring the sole, substantially as described.

2. The shield S, provided with the slot t, and

curved in the direction of its length and wid th, I o substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WM. H. CUFF. \Vitnesses G. W. GREGORY, ARTHUR REYNOLDS. 

